President Donald Trump on Monday said the United States is engaged in “serious discussions” with Iranian officials on a deal to end the war, but threatened to bombard Iran’s power, oil and water infrastructure if negotiations fail.
“Great progress has been made,” Trump said on Truth Social, adding that if a deal is not reached shortly and the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, the United States will “conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”
Experts say intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure, such as water desalination plants, may constitute a violation of international humanitarian law. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and the military would “act within the confines of the law.”
Trump’s latest threats come as Iran launched more strikes across the region, hitting Israel’s largest oil refinery and a desalination plant in Kuwait. Thousands of additional U.S. troops arrived in the Middle East over the weekend. Washington and Tehran have also continued to send conflicting messages about the state of the negotiations to end the war.
Thousands have been killed across Iran and Lebanon, where Israel is expanding its ongoing ground invasion. Dozens have been killed in other Middle Eastern countries, including Israel. Among the dead are 13 U.S. service members.
Follow live updates on the Iran war below.
Michael Loria
The man who rammed an explosive-laden truck into a Michigan synagogue where scores of children were at a preschool acted as an operative of Hezbollah, FBI officials said March 30.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, rammed a vehicle into Temple Israel outside Detroit on March 12. The 41-year-old died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound amid the attack, the FBI said. He planned and carried out the attack after his brother, who was a Hezbollah fighter in Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli attack on March 9. The synagogue security chief was struck by Ghazali’s vehicle but was expected to recover.
FBI investigators slammed connections drawn between Ghazali’s slain family members and justification for the attack in Michigan.
“While the mobilization and radicalization we saw in earnest come after March 9, it’s almost immaterial,” said FBI Detroit’s Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan. “It’s a terrorist attack against people that had nothing to do with his family.”
Rebecca Morin
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to put a timeline on ending the war with Iran.
“It’s definitely beyond the halfway point, but I don’t want to put a schedule on it,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Newsmax on Monday.
The United States, who conducted joint strikes with Israel against Iran on Feb. 28, has repeatedly said the war would last “four to six” weeks.
“The will mission will continue until the objectives are achieved, and that four to six week timeline does remain right now,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
Rebecca Morin
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, on Monday warned that Iran would hit back at the United States if it targets the country.
“The enemy promotes its desires as news while threatening our nation at same time,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X. “Big Mistake. If they hit one,they’ll take several back.”
Trump has said the United States is negotiating with Ghalibaf to end the war. Ghalibaf on Sunday accused the U.S. of sending messages about possible negotiations while at the same time planning to send in troops. In his social media post on Monday, Ghalibaf said the people of Iran “will make the enemy regret the aggression and reclaim their rights.”
Reuters
Authorities in Sharjah, a port city in the United Arab Emirates, said on Monday that an administrative building of Thuraya Telecommunications, a mobile-satellite service provider, was targeted by a drone from Iran, the emirate’s media office said in a post on X.
No injuries were reported.
Andrea Riquier
The oil price remained elevated – though a bit lower than in the morning on March 30 – as other parts of the financial markets started to flash warning signs.
Brent crude was just below $114 a barrel as Wall Street closed for trading. Gas prices also ticked higher, with a national average of $3.968 a gallon, according to GasBuddy data. Stocks, which had started the morning higher, reversed course midday and closed mostly lower. The broad S&P 500 was off 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7%. The Dow eked out a gain of 0.11%.
But it’s the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield that’s drawing the most attention from analysts. It sank 10 basis points on Monday as the sell-off of the past few weeks reversed.
Lower yields, or interest rates, are usually helpful for the economy since they encourage people and businesses to borrow. In this case, however, they may signal that investors believe the economy is weakening more rapidly than expected.
“As market concerns about the economic risks from the war and higher oil prices grow, the Treasury response to oil gains has shifted a bit,” said John Canavan, lead analyst for Oxford Economics, in a morning note.
Instead of concentrating on the higher inflation caused by the oil price spike, Canavan said, traders are now focused on the weaker economy. In aggregate, markets are now expecting only 3 basis points of Federal Reserve rate hikes to contain inflation this year, down sharply from 20 basis points last week.
Bart Jansen
Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced concern about Israel barring services at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Israel because of security concerns and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reversed himself to allow services.
Israeli authorities had prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa from celebrating Mass on Palm Sunday at the church where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.
Netanyahu posted on social media that while he understood concerns about Iran targeting holy sites, he “instructed the authorities to enable the Patriarch to hold services as he wishes.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Rubio had voiced concerns from the United States to Israel about the policy.
“We want worshippers to be able to access these holy sites,” Leavitt said. “Of course, safety is a top priority. But we understand Israel is working on those security measures to reopen the sites throughout Holy Week, and that’s something we’re appreciative of.”
Bart Jansen
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to comment on reports that U.S. land mines were dropped into Iran.
“I don’t have any comment on that report today,” Leavitt said.
The New York Times and CBS News reported that anti-tank and anti-personnel mines appeared to have been dropped in cluster bombs near the village of Shiraz.
Bart Jansen
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and the military would “act within the confines of the law” in the war on Iran despite the president’s threat to destroy electric facilities and desalinization plants.
“Their best move is to make a deal or else the United States armed forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination and the president is not afraid to use them,” Leavitt said. “Of course this administration and the United States armed forces will always act within the confines of the law.”
“With respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated and he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration,” Leavitt added.
Christopher Cann
While Iranian officials publicly deny negotiations are ongoing, they are privately engaging in “talks,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, describing the negotiations as “going well.”
“These folks are appearing more reasonable behind the scenes, privately, in these conversations, than perhaps some of the previous leaders that are no longer on planet Earth,” Leavitt told reporters at a briefing on Monday.
She added: “Anything that they say to us privately will be tested and we will ensure that they are being held accountable to their word. And if they are not, the president has laid out the military consequences that the Iranian regime will see.”
President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed the U.S. is communicating with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, as it seeks a peace deal to end the war.
Zac Anderson
As the Iran war enters a fifth week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration is still estimating the conflict will last four to six weeks.
“The will mission will continue until the objectives are achieved, and that four to six week timeline does remain right now,” Leavitt said Monday.
The war began on Feb. 28 and has now lasted for 30 days, with Trump touting progress in negotiations to end the conflict while also weighing whether to escalate attacks.
Bart Jansen
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is considering asking Arab countries to help pay for the war on Iran.
Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates paid a significant portion of the 1991 Gulf War and Leavitt was asked if Trump would ask them to step up again.
“I think it’s something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do,” Leavitt said. “I won’t get ahead of him on that but it’s certainly an idea that I know that he has and something that I think you’ll hear more from him on.”
Bart Jansen
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said negotiations with Iran represent a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for Tehran but that the country will “pay a grave price” if no peace agreement is reached.
“This remains truly a once in a generation opportunity for the regime to make a good deal with the United States, permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and stop acting as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” Leavitt said.
“If the Iranians reject this golden opportunity, the greatest military in the history of the world continues to stand by to provide President Trump with every option available to ensure this regime continues to pay a grave price,” she added.
Kathryn Palmer
At least two U.S. university campuses in the Middle East are tightening security measures this week following reports that Iran is threatening to strike American-run colleges in the region.
American University of Beirut announced its campus in Lebanon’s capital will be closed March 30-31, and Georgetown University said early March 30 that its campus building in Qatar is closed until further notice. Both schools said they will continue to operate online.
Multiple media outlets reported on Sunday, March 29, that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it would target U.S. universities in the Middle East in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes Iran says hit two of its universities over the weekend.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said in an alert posted to social media that Iran “may intend to target” American universities in Iraq after the regime directed threats toward American universities “across various parts of the Middle East.”
Christopher Cann
Secretary of State Macro Rubio told Al Jazeera that President Trump prefers diplomacy, but said Iran will “face real consequences” if the regime continues to block the Strait of Hormuz.
“We are well on our way, or ahead of schedule. We will achieve them in weeks, not months, and then we’ll be confronted with this issue of the Straits of Hormuz, and it’ll be up to Iran to decide,” Rubio told Al Jazeera.
He added: “If they choose to try to block the straits, then they will have to face real consequences, not just from the United States, but from regional countries and from the world.”
Christopher Cann
President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed the United States is communicating with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, as Washington seeks a deal to end the war.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said the U.S. will “find out soon” whether Ghalibaf is willing to work toward a peaceful end to the war. “I’ll let you know in about a week,” Trump told the outlet. In a sperate interview with The Financial Times, Trump said Ghalibaf has allowed several tankers to move through the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump described as a sign of good will.
Ghalibaf, 64, is seen as a hardliner who previously served as a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He has been Iran’s parliamentary speaker since 2020. On Sunday, Ghalibaf accused the U.S. of sending messages about possible negotiations while at the same time planning to send in troops, adding that Tehran was ready to respond if U.S. soldiers were deployed.
“As long as the Americans seek Iran’s surrender, our response is that we will never accept humiliation,” he said in an address to the nation.
Christopher Cann
The Qatari Ministry of Defense on Monday said it intercepted multiple drones in the latest Iranian attack on Gulf Arab states.
The Qatari Ministry of Defense announces that the State of Qatar was targeted by an attack involving a number of drones launched from Iran earlier today,” a statement from Qatar’s defense ministry said on X. “Our Armed Forces, by the grace of God, successfully intercepted and neutralized all incoming drones.”
Christopher Cann
NATO said it intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile heading toward Turkey, as Iran stepped up its attacks on neighboring countries across the region.
“NATO is prepared for such threats and will always do what is necessary to defend all Allies,” spokesperson Allison Hart said in a post on X.
The military alliance has on three other occasions intercepted Iranian missiles in Turkish airspace since the war began in late February.
Rachel Barber
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he believes U.S. monetary policy is in “a good place,” but that Americans’ inflation expectations will help inform how the central bank responds to oil price spikes resulting from the Iran war.
“The tendency is to look through any kind of a supply shock,” Powell said Monday while addressing a class of Harvard University students. “But a critical, essential aspect of that is you have to carefully monitor inflation expectations.”
After supply shocks drove inflation to 40-year highs during the pandemic, and with tariffs now pushing prices higher, he said it’s understandable that businesses and households would expect inflation to rise following the start of the conflict. He added, however, that those expectations remain stable over the longer term.
“Monetary policy works with long and variable lags, famously,” Powell said. “And so, by the time the effects of a tightening in monetary policy takes effect, the oil price shock is probably long gone.”
As of Monday, forecasters predict the Fed will hold its benchmark rate steady at a range of 3.5% to 3.75% at its next meeting at the end of April.
Christopher Cann
More than 1,240 people in Lebanon have been killed in the war, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, as Israel expands its ground invasion.
After the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel from Lebanon. As the war intensified, Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, leading to over a million people displaced amid increased Israeli bombardments.
Israeli officials said they intend to control a large section of southern Lebanon, as troops push deeper into the country. Humanitarian grounds have reported Israeli forces destroying whole residential areas.
Over the weekend, Israeli strikes killed a United Nations peacekeeper and three journalists in Lebanon. A Hezbollah-led attack killed an Israeli soldier and wounded at least four others, the Israeli military said Monday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised the ground invasion will intensify.
“I have just instructed to further expand the existing security buffer zone (in southern Lebanon),” Netanyahu said in a video address on Sunday.
Christopher Cann
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said an increasing number of ships have traveled across the Strait of Hormuz, but added that U.S. will eventually “retake control” of the critical trade route.
In an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Bessent said 10 ships passed along the strait on Sunday and that 20 more were expected to move through Monday.
“We are seeing more and more ships go through on a daily basis as individual countries cut deals with the Iranian regime for the time being,” he said, adding that, “Over time, the U.S. is going to retake control of the straits, and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through U.S. escorts or a multi-national escort.”
Trump threatened to strike civilian infrastructure across Iran if it did not reopen the strait, which has been effectively shut down since the war began in late February. The president has blasted NATO members and other ally countries for not sending naval ships to help the U.S. secure the waterway.
Christopher Cann
The European Council is supportive of Pakistan’s efforts to mediate peace talks between the U.S. and Iran, said Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharif said in a post on X that he spoke with the council’s President António Costa about the war in the Middle East and efforts to resolve the conflict.
“We exchanged views on the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East and agreed that dialogue and diplomacy must prevail in order to restore regional peace and stability,” Sharif said. “I briefed him on Pakistan’s ongoing mediation efforts, which he welcomed and supported.”
Francesca Chambers
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to contradict Trump on Monday morning after the president declared that the U.S. was in “serious discussions” with “a new, and more reasonable, regime” in Iran to end the war.
Rubio told “Good Morning America” on ABC News that it “would be good news” for the Iranians and America “if there are new people in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future.”
“But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability, that that’s not the case,” Rubio said.
He said there are people in Iran that are “saying the right things” in private, but the U.S. has to see if they end up being the ones with the power to deliver. “We’re going to test it. We are hopeful that that’s the case.”
He declined again during the interview to say who the administration was speaking with in the negotiations.
Andrea Riquier
The oil price jumped after President Trump threatened U.S. action “completely obliterating” much of Iran’s energy infrastructure March 30.
Brent crude futures were above $114 a barrel, up about 2%, although gas prices, which take a few days to catch up, were lower. GasBuddy’s nationwide tracker showed an average cost of $3.951 per gallon, down nearly 3 cents from last week.
U.S. stock markets looked set to open higher after two of the three major indexes tumbled into correction last week. The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell more than 7 basis points, signaling some buying by investors. Bond yields move in the opposite direction of prices.
Many investors remain skeptical about day-to-day gyrations in the war.
Don Rissmiller, chief economist for Strategas, summarized his feeling in a Monday morning note:
“The hit to real income due to inflation spiking near-term looks substantial,” he wrote. “Longer-term interest rates are rising. That combination of higher rates & oil should slow economic growth as we move through 2026. If there is not significant progress toward normalization in the Strait of Hormuz over the next week, we will raise our U.S. recession odds in 2026 from 25% to 35%.”
Bart Jansen
Trump told reporters that Iran responded favorably to 15 points the United States proposed to end the war but that peace talks continue.
Trump hasn’t detailed the demands and press secretary Karoline Leavitt disputed some of the points that have been publicized. But the key point the president has sought is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
He cited Iran’s allowing 10 oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as an indication Tehran is moving toward a peace agreement.
“Well, they’re agreeing with us on the plan,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We’re having very good meetings, both directly and indirectly, and I think we’re getting a lot of very important points.”
Christopher Cann
President Donald Trump on Monday stepped up his threats against Iran, saying if a deal is not struck the U.S. will destroy critical infrastructure across the country, including power plants and Kharg Island.
“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely “stay” in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched,’” Trump said on Truth Social.
He said such action would be “retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.’”
Christopher Cann
Debris from an intercepted missile struck a large oil refinery in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Monday, according to the country’s Fire and Rescue Service.
Smoke could be seen billowing from the refinery, which is the largest in the country. No casualties were reported and Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said productions facilities were not impacted by the strike.
Christopher Cann
Spain’s defense minister on Monday announced his country has closed its airspace to U.S. aircraft involved in attacks on Iran, a move likely to escalate tensions between Madrid and Washington.
“We don’t authorize either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been one of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, describing them as reckless and illegal. Spain previously denied the U.S. from using its bases to conduct the war, which led President Donald Trump to threaten to cut trade with the NATO ally.
Contributing: Reuters
Christopher Cann and Kathryn Palmer
Kharg Island lies about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf. About 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports are processed on this small piece of land. Pipelines from some of Iran’s biggest oil fields connect to Kharg Island as well, and millions of barrels of oil are also stored there.
Trump has recently been weighing an operation to take control of the island, news outlets, including Axios and CNN, reported. Experts have described the potential operation as risky, saying it would open U.S. soldiers up to waves of attacks from Iranian drones and short-range missiles if they seize the island.
Trump, in an article published Monday, told The Financial Times that if the U.S. invades and occupies the island, “It would also mean we had to be there (on Kharg Island) for a while.”
Still, such an operation is popular with some Trump allies. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, urged Trump on Fox News to take control of the island, saying “We did Iwo Jima, we can do this.”
Thao Nguyen
Trump told reporters on Sunday that there has been a “regime change” in Iran during the war.
“We’ve had regime change, if you look already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed. They’re all dead,” Trump claimed on board Air Force One while en route to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime, we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before. It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change, and frankly, they’ve been very reasonable.”
Trump has previously advocated for overthrowing the Iranian regime and said he should have a role in choosing the Middle Eastern country’s new leader. After the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in late February, Trump had called on Iranian citizens to “seize control” of their government.
Earlier this month, Mojtaba Khamenei was named as Iran’s new supreme leader after his father, former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Bart Jansen
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that other Middle East countries are supporting the United States and fighting against Iran after they were struck by missiles and drones.
“They’re all fighting back,” Trump said. “I was surprised they got hit.”
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait are each fighting back, Trump said.
“We’re in very strong communications with all those countries, and they’re all fighting,” Trump added. “They’re 100% on our side.”
Contributing: Reuters
Thao Nguyen
Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since the war began on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, according to Reuters.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which is based in the United States, reported that 3,461 people have been killed in the war as of Saturday. The death toll includes 1,551 civilians — with at least 236 children — and 1,208 military fatalities.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on March 27 that at least 1,900 people have been killed and 20,000 were injured in Iran since the war erupted.
Authorities in Lebanon said 1,142 people have been killed and 3,315 were injured by Israeli strikes as of March 27. It was unclear whether the death toll includes Hezbollah fighters.
Reuters also reported that at least 100 people have died in Iraq and dozens have been killed in other nations and territories across the region.
The number of U.S. service members injured in the Iran war has grown to more than 300, according to the Pentagon. The death toll remains at 13 service members killed.
Contributing: Reuters
Thao Nguyen
Oil prices jumped on Sunday, March 29, after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched their first attacks on Israel since the war began. The group said it conducted missile and drone attacks on southern Israel on Friday and Saturday.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose $3.16, or 2.81%, to $115.73 a barrel by around 5 p.m. ET on Sunday after settling 4.2% higher on Friday. U.S. crude was at $102.77 a barrel, up $3.13, or 3.14%, following a 5.5% gain in the previous session.
Contributing: Reuters
Bart Jansen
Trump says he still supports Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, despite differing views about the threat of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
“Yeah, sure,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, when asked if he still had confidence in her. “She’s a little bit different in her thought process than me, but that doesn’t make somebody not available to serve.”
Gabbard had testified at the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 18 that Iran has made no efforts to rebuild its nuclear enrichment program since the U.S. bombing struck three key sites in June 2025. Trump has cited the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program as the key reason for the current bombing campaign.
“I would say that I’m very strong on the fact that I don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon because if they had a nuclear weapon they would use it immediately,” Trump said. “I think she’s a little softer on that issue, but that’s OK.”
Bart Jansen
Trump said he could shut down Iranian tolling of ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz “in two minutes,” if it were happening.
Iranian attacks on oil tankers nearly choked off shipping through the strait, where 20% of the world’s oil travels. But Iran has begun to let ships through from certain countries.
European leaders have said ships will probably need military escorts through the strait after open warfare ends. But Trump said he would have to determine whether Iran was charging tolls before taking action.
“We could close that up in two minutes,” Trump said. “We could close that up so fast your head would spin.”